Pages

Follow Sunlit Uplands by E-Mail

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Dr. Paul Kengor: Shirley Temple's America

I learned only yesterday that Shirley Temple, the iconic child
actress, died earlier this week at age 85. Reports on her death were
easy to miss. I went through my usual scan of various websites and saw
nothing. I fortunately caught a buried “Shirley Temple, R.I.P.” by a
writer at a political website.

I was dismayed by the sparse reaction to the loss of this woman who
lived a great American life. Had Shirley Temple died 50 years ago, or
even 30 years ago, the country would have stopped. People everywhere
would have paused to give Temple her due. It would have been the lead in
every newspaper.

But not today. Our culture is too obsessed with Miley Cyrus and gay
marriage to give proper recognition to a woman who was one of the most
acclaimed, respected, and even cherished Americans, a household name to
children and adults alike.

When I caught the news of Temple’s death, I groaned. I braced myself
to tell my two young daughters. They’ve watched Shirley Temple movies
for years. To them, she’s a contemporary, another innocent little girl.
When I informed my 11-year-old daughter, she frowned and said, “Oh,
that’s terrible.” She was about to cry when I quickly explained
that Shirley was 85 and had lived an extraordinary life. There was no
reason to be sad.

For years, as my daughters and wife and I watched Temple’s old
movies, particularly on the superb Turner Classic Movies channel, we’d
check her date of birth, do the math, and realize that Shirley probably
would be with us a while longer. That while has finally closed.

Clark’s grandfather was a literal sheriff, cowboy, and California
trailblazer, known throughout the Los Angeles area. Some Hollywood
publicity folks contacted the senior Clark around 1936 for a local
promotion. The promotion featured four-year-old little Bill pinning a
badge on Shirley Temple’s vest as she was “officially” deputized by
Marshal Clark.

Bill Clark always fondly recalled that moment, captured in a photo that he kept framed and that we put in his biography.
He would later have pictures with the likes of Ronald Reagan and
Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II, but here was one photo he kept
close to heart.

Fifty years later, Clark and Temple served together again, this time
in the State Department, where Clark alas held the higher rank: he, as
second in command; she, as foreign affairs officer. Temple’s old
Hollywood friend, fellow Republican, and political ally, Ronald Reagan,
had appointed her. She became an ambassador.

But Shirley Temple was, of course, known for film rather than
politics. I cannot do justice to that storied career here, but indulge
me as I share one of my favorite Shirley Temple movies.

In the 1934 classic, Bright Eyes, Shirley played a
five-year-old who lost her father in an airplane crash and then lost her
mother. She is comforted by loving people who would do anything for
her, including her godfather, who is identified as just that. The
godfather behaves like a true godfather. The movie includes constant,
natural references to faith, never shying from words like God, Heaven,
and even Jesus—verboten in Hollywood today.

Today’s sneering secular audiences would reflexively dismiss the film
as Norman Rockwell-ish. To the contrary, the movie is hardly
sugar-coated. Just when your heart is broken from the death of sweet
Shirley’s dad, her mom is killed by a car while carrying a cake for
Shirley on Christmas day.

That doesn’t remind me of any Norman Rockwell portrait I’ve seen.

What such cynics really mean is that the film isn’t sufficiently
depraved for modern tastes. Shirley doesn’t pole dance or “twerk.” She
doesn’t do a darling little strip tease for the boys while singing “Good
Ship, Lollipop.” The references to God are not in vain or in the form
of enlightening blasphemy. And the movie has a happy, not miserable,
ending.

Come to think of it, maybe this isn’t a movie for modern audiences!

For 80 years, Shirley Temple’s bright eyes brightened the big screen.
They reflected what was good and decent in this country. She embodied
what made America great, and she brightened our lives in the process.

No comments:

This website is dedicated to a renewal of Christian culture. It is inspired by Sir Winston Churchill, a valiant defender of Christian civilization, who believed "we have a great treasure to guard; that the inheritance in our possession represents the prolonged achievement of the centuries." With Churchill, we believe that a "fraternal association" of the English-speaking peoples must "for their own safety and for the good of all walk together in majesty, in justice and in peace.”